Such a sentiment a week ago seemed far-fetched for the Aggies, who appeared a likely entrant for the NCAA tournament by netting 20 victories on the last day of February. But A&M dropped its final two regular-season contests, including 61-60 on Saturday in Reed Arena to a once-stumbling Alabama squad, suddenly putting its postseason hopes in doubt.

“I can’t control all of that right now,” A&M fourth-year coach Billy Kennedy said of any NCAA tournament speculation. “I know we have a very good basketball team.”

That’s also in doubt, however, in the absence of the Aggies’ top player. Junior guard Danuel House, who leads the team with 14.8 points per game, missed the loss after hurting his foot late in a 66-62 loss at Florida on Tuesday.

Asked if he anticipated House returning for the SEC tournament starting later this week in Nashville, Tenn., Kennedy responded, “It’s something I’m not sure about. We hope for the best, but we’re really not sure.”

A week ago, the Aggies (20-10, 11-7 SEC) also didn’t suspect they’d need the SEC tournament to try and impress the NCAA tournament committee. Now, they do. A&M’s NCAA postseason hopes will dim considerably with a loss in their first game in the league tourney. The conference tournament seeding was determined late Saturday night.

On Saturday, the Crimson Tide (18-13, 8-10) overcame a 36-22 halftime deficit to prevail before 9,064.

“I think we exhausted a lot of our energy in the first half,” said A&M guard Jordan Green, who along with fellow senior Roberson played their final games in Reed. “Give credit to Alabama. We showed a little bit of energy, but they showed more. It’s tough, man, but we’ve got more basketball to play.”

A&M had held a decided advantage in points in the paint for almost the entirety of its SEC slate, but Alabama dominated on that front (34-20) on Saturday. The Crimson Tide also held a 16-2 advantage on second-chance points.

“For us in the first half, it seemed like everything that could go wrong went wrong,” Alabama coach Anthony Grant said. “I’m proud of our guys, because they never wavered.”

Despite their suddenly myriad troubles, the Aggies still had a chance to win with a final shot on Saturday. Trailing 61-60 with 10.7 seconds left, they turned to shooting guard Peyton Allen following a time out. But the freshman missed his 3-point attempt

Brent Zwerneman is a staff writer for the Houston Chronicle and chron.com covering Texas A&M athletics. He is a graduate of Oak Ridge High School and Sam Houston State University, where he played baseball.

Brent is the author of four published books about Texas A&M, three related to A&M athletics. He’s a four-time winner of APSE National Top 10 writing awards for the San Antonio Express-News, including a second-place finish for breaking the Dennis Franchione “secret newsletter” scandal in 2007.

His coverage of Texas A&M’s move to the SEC from the Big 12 also netted a third-place finish nationally in 2012. Brent met his wife, KBTX-TV news anchor Crystal Galny, in the Dixie Chicken before an A&M-Texas Tech football game in 2002, and the couple has three children: Will, Zoe and Brady.